Christmas brought us 8 inches of snow, now New Years is taking it away. As you can see by this picture, there’s not much snow left here in Kenosha. Just five days ago our front yard had 12 inches of snow in it. When I did my measurement for CoCoRaHS yesterday morning there was still 7.5″ in the yard, but after a drizzly day yesterday with temps in the 40′s, it’s just about gone. I’m sure today will take care of the rest as temps get into the low 50′s with rain and thunderstorms possible this afternoon.

Don’t let the clearness of this picture fool you. The last 36 hours have been very foggy here along Lake Michigan. In fact, just 30 minutes before I took this picture, visibilities were less than 1/4 mile. Then the sun popped out for a bit and burned the fog off, but as I write this the sun is gone again and the fog has returned.

I received .18″ of rain this morning here at the house. Checking the radar, it looks like some more rain is about ready to move in. The QPF for Kenosha is between .25″ and .50″ of rain today. It would be pretty cool to hear some thunder this afternoon, but I’m thinking that most of the heavier storms will stay to the south of us. A friend of ours in Zion IL heard some thunder this morning.

It sure feels good to take the dog outside and not have to put on the winter coat. I stayed out with him a little longer than normal this morning soaking in the warmth. Need to enjoy it today because tomorrow the bottom falls out again and winter returns.

The Milwaukee/Sullivan NWS has a great write up about Wisconsin’s top weather events of 2010. It can be found here: 2010 Wisconsin Top Weather Events

Hope everyone has a very Happy New Year. Stay safe out there tonight. We won’t be doing anything special tonight, but I’m getting ready for a big weekend of football. Go Badgers & Go Pack Go!!

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A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for the Sierra Nevada through 4:00pm PST.

Here are some of the 24hr totals from Sierra ski resorts.

• Squaw Valley: 13 – 20″
• Kirkwood: 22 – 23″
• Bear Valley: 16″
• Mammoth Mountain: 27 – 36″
• China Peak: 26 – 29″

The cold front will be sweeping through the Sierra today, bringing another foot of snow to the higher elevations along with high winds.

Looks like things dry out on Thrusday and Friday with the next chance of snow for the mountains over New Years weekend.

Winter Storm Warnings are posted once again for the entire Sierra Nevada from 4pm Tuesday through 4pm Wednesday. 2-3 feet of snow is forecast for elevations above 5000 ft.

Here’s the Weather Story from the San Joaquin Valley/Hanford NWS

This is a pretty cool time lapse video from yesterday’s east coast blizzard. Not sure where this was taken at.

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.